Ouch! First huge repair bill.

[kbeckley]

This smells fishy. First off, for $750 a caliper, you could have them rebuilt. They will hone the cylinders and replace the seals. Very serviceable!

The pitted rotors were not a problem except cosmetically. Many rotors are drilled already, so pits won't hurt them much, only slightly higher pad wear.

I do recommend a hard high-speed stop at least once every few weeks, and set regen to low for a few miles of stop and go. Also, in moist climates, change your brake fluid as soon as it turns yellow! It's hygroscopic, so it will suck moisture out of the air and then work on corroding your system from the inside out. Think the calipers are expensive? Check the price of the ABS valve body. I'd change it every 2 years minimum.

Tesla told me they spend a few hours trying to salvage the clipers but could only save one. Clearly it was my bad to not have them do a brake service but I was relying on Tesla to do what they thought they needed to do.

I had the car in every year (sometimes more).

 

[kbeckley]

Maybe that's why it costs so much, he was buying BREAKS when all he really needed was BRAKES.

Seriously though, that's stupid expensive by a factor of 2-3x

Well that's embarrassing. I clearly need a break on my expensive brakes repair.

The cost of the parts seems wildly expensive to me but I have never had to replace these parts on any car so I did not have a frame of reference.

 

[kbeckley]

Yes, the car is supposed to be low maintenance. But this one, perhaps an outlier, required significant brake hardware replacement. Again, I'm not saying I agree with the replacement price, I'm just not surprised. People who buy $100k cars really shouldn't be surprised either.

Well yes and no. I bought an expensive car but one of the selling features was the promise of low repair costs. 'What's there to break or wear out?' Certainly that is what I have been telling anyone who would listen over the past 3.5 years. This invoice certainly hurts that argument. Now I have to say the Model S 'should' be cheap to maintain.

To correct any misconception my bill all in was ~$5,600 Canadian (that's like $5 U.S. ). Tesla waived the labour - it was in the shop for 4 days.

If this turns out to be not just my car then Tesla has an issue. Perhaps I am a one off. As I said they claim they have now put brakes service on their annual service visit for customers in the Northeast. I encourage everyone to insist on it.

 

[kbeckley]

Two questions;

1) Is it a performance version and if so, is it fair to compare the price with standard BMW 5 series breaks? (ducks and runs from the spelling police!)
2) How many miles have you driven with these brakes and how does that mileage compare with an ICE powered car?

Nope. It is a sig 85. Not a performance version

The odometer is at 104,000 km. ~60k miles.

 

[AWDtsla]

Hi all. Have been out of touch for some days. I'll try to answer what is directed at me.

This confused me too. While I try to maximize regen I still use the brakes. Not sure why the pistons would be ceased. As I said before the brakes felt fine - perhaps a little mushy.

That's strange, not a symptom of stuck pistons. Loss of range, super hot rotors, uneven pad wear and eventual noise from worn pads are.

 

[Electricfan]

Below is something it had at the bottom of my annual service. Since I live in a warm climate I have asked when Tesla recommends it be done. I'll post back. Did you have this done? UPDATE: Tesla responded it never needs to be done in a warm climate like Houston.

 

[AWDtsla]

Below is something it had at the bottom of my annual service. Since I live in a warm climate I have asked when Tesla recommends it be done. I'll post back. Did you have this done?

View attachment 177753

LOL It's like you're a second class citizen if you don't live where the weather is awesome all the time.

 

[Electricfan]

LOL It's like you're a second class citizen if you don't live where the weather is awesome all the time.

LOL, I have to strongly disagree with the "awesome all the time" comment. If you've ever walked outside when the temp is 110 deg F and the humidity is 100%, and its like that for a month straight, you won't consider it "awesome all the time" either!

 

[russman]

I've had my car for 2 years and my first annual they did the 24k service and the 2nd year they did the same 24k service. I have about 40k miles. In that service they did the brake fluid and such.

I'd be very interested if this would have been covered under Extended warranty, but even still, I'm going to hit the expiration of an ESA in under 5 years probably.... doesn't seem worth it....

 

[navguy12]

Below is something it had at the bottom of my annual service. Since I live in a warm climate I have asked when Tesla recommends it be done. I'll post back. Did you have this done? UPDATE: Tesla responded it never needs to be done in a warm climate like Houston.

View attachment 177753

When I sold both my classic cars a few years ago, I kept my 4 post hobby hoist for simple stuff like annual anti rust spray, oil changes, brake maintenance, etc. I guess when I get my Model 3, I'll still have a good use for that hoist.

 

[Doug_G]

Just to confirm the Tesla brake fluid is clear and colorless when new right? I looked online and it certainly looks like mine is closer to the color of 5 year old brake fluid. I'm just worried about the possibility of corrosion mentioned by @Ingineer.

It should be light yellow.

 

[ThosEM]

This seems very strange and I don't see how it could stem from a supposed lack of use of Model S brakes. Don't we use our brakes every time we stop, albeit not very heavily at all? And don't we use our parking brake every time we put it in Park? I wonder if it has more to do with roadway salt treatments?

I did a search and didn't find a link to this article, which might have a grain of truth in it and identifies many things Tesla could do to improve the situation:
Syonyk's Project Blog: Why I think Tesla is building throwaway cars

 

[SageBrush]

Salted roads and infrequent friction brake use are a sure fire recipe for expensive repair bills in EVs. Our Prius is subject to the same problems so I make a point of a long and thorough friction brake use at least monthly in the winter.

 

[Luclyluciano]

I live in Toronto. Owned several $100k + cars some with high performance brakes that make Teslas feel weak.
Never had a bill over $2500.

 

[AWDtsla]

I live in Toronto. Owned several $100k + cars some with high performance brakes that make Teslas feel weak.
Never had a bill over $2500.

For that much money, you could almost replace the rotors in the last gen M3, forget about calipers, pads, fluid. Sounds like you got lucky.

 

[Pdub2015]

I live in Toronto. Owned several $100k + cars some with high performance brakes that make Teslas feel weak.
Never had a bill over $2500.

I would wager that none of those cars required replacing all four calipers, along with the rotors, pads, etc. The OPs car, I think we can agree, suffered catastrophic brake system failure. Hopefully it's an anomaly.

 

[JonMc]

This situation caught my eye so I asked our team to look into the details of kbeckley's situation. This repair is an anomaly -- the amount of debris build up and damage was highly unusual. We don't see braking system repairs like this in our data. That said, kbeckley, our team will be reaching out to you directly to make sure you feel completely taken care of and that the repair costs are fair (we already waived all of the labor charges as you know). We do recommend for high road debris areas and winter climates that owners have their braking system cleaned and lubricated as part of their annual service.

--Jon@tesla

 

[Electricfan]

This situation caught my eye so I asked our team to look into the details of kbeckley's situation. This repair is an anomaly -- the amount of debris build up and damage was highly unusual. We don't see braking system repairs like this in our data. That said, kbeckley, our team will be reaching out to you directly to make sure you feel completely taken care of and that the repair costs are fair (we already waived all of the labor charges as you know). We do recommend for high road debris areas and winter climates that owners have their braking system cleaned and lubricated as part of their annual service.

--Jon@tesla

Hi Jon, Sorry maybe others in the forum know you, but I don't. I wonder if you could say what your position is with Tesla? I think it would be fantastic if someone from Tesla could weigh in more often on the forum with "real data". We guess and speculate a lot around here!

 

[bhzmark]

Welcome JonMc, if you are indeed the Head of Global Sales and Service.

Tesla Adds Jon McNeill as New Head of Global Sales and Service

When this CEO traded up to a Tesla, a job with Elon Musk wasn’t far behind

 

[navguy12]

We do recommend for high road debris areas and winter climates that owners have their braking system cleaned and lubricated as part of their annual service.

Standard operating procedures for every daily driver I have ever owned.